Creative Lockdown Project: Rainbow alphabet

Creative Lockdown Project: Rainbow alphabet

This is the sixth creative lockdown challenge. These challenges are designed to be a bit of fun and to document our time collectively spent in lockdown, this one is also intended to say a huge THANK YOU to everybody who is working to keep us safe. Please share the project with friends and post your final results on social media with #CreativeLockdownProject. If you also tag #TypeTasting I’ll be sharing some of the results.

This week’s project is inspired by the wonderful rainbow alphabet (shown above) created by my very talented friend Miho Aishima for the children’s ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and community group @NunheadKnocks. She designed a rainbow typeface and created posters for kids who can’t get outside to see the rainbows out there. You can download Miho’s rainbow fonts here.

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Virtual Dalston Type Safari & sign spotting pub quiz

Discover the messages hidden in London’s street signs
1-hour Type Safari + 15-minute pub quiz + Q&A
Check out all the virtual talks and events here

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London Type Safari & pub quiz
Route 1: Hidden treasures

Beautiful signs from the past are revealed when a building changes ownership, but they might not be visible for long.

Monday 18th May, 7.30pm (London)  BOOK NOW
Tuesday 2nd June, 9am (London)  BOOK NOW

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London Type Safari & pub quiz
Route 2: Crafted by hand

Signs are the voices of the high street, from DIY lettering, secret in-the-know symbols, to the craft of the sign writer.

Tuesday 19th May, 7.30pm (London)  BOOK NOW
Thursday 4th June, 9am (London)  BOOK NOW

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Routes 1 and 2 can be enjoyed as separate, stand-alone events.

• Compare East London with your local neighbourhood
• Discover clues to spot quintessential businesses from the past
• Explore ornate signs previously hidden from view
• Find out whether you judge a pub by its sign
• Revisit iconic Dalston signs that have since disappeared

Sign spotting pub quiz
This is a fun and informal session that’s suitable for everybody, no design knowledge is needed. There will be a sign spotting quiz during the tour, can you spot all the answers? At the end of the hour-long tour, you’re invited to join Sarah for a drink in a virtual local establishment as she goes through the answers. Play along with your family and friends to find out who is the champion sign spotter?

Your tour guide
Type safaris are led by Type Tasting founder Sarah Hyndman. She’s the author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter, a TEDx speaker, regular on BBC Radio 4 and an occasional guest on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. She has created a series of virtual events that will take place while Type Tasting sessions are on hold due to Covid-19.

“Just done the first part of the Dalston Type Safari as a wedding anniversary ‘night out’. It was brilliant and made us feel like we were walking the streets of Dalston during lockdown.” Cathy

“Thank you for the virtual type tour of Dalston! I never noticed the beautiful signs and pieces of history when I was there before. Lovely to learn something at the end of the working day and explore the streets from the comfort of my couch.” Radina

Check out all the virtual talks and events here

Would like to arrange a private tour for your group at a time of your choosing, maybe because you live in a different time zone? Get in touch with Sarah here.

  logo-aiga   bbc-logo    FT-Logo    oglobo_logo_mono    LTG Europe 2017 Shortlisted

      

Creative Lockdown Project: Everyday display letter

Creative Lockdown Project: Everyday display letter

In the 1820s Louis John Pouchée created decoratively extravagant letters which were based on a fat-face style typeface. The letters featured imagery of things that were popular at the time like flowers, farmyard scenes, musical instruments and Masonic symbols.

Challenge
To create your own modern-day version of an ornamented letter that illustrates your everyday life while we’re in lockdown. Please share this project with your family and friends so you can all compare your letters.

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Win Fontosaur giveaway packs

Win Fontosaur giveaway packs
Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth

There are 20 free giveaway packs up for grabs to celebrate the launch of the exciting new typographic colouring books for children Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth.

Each free giveaway pack contains:
• Fontosaur sheets to colour in.
• Activity sheets to cut out and colour.
• A The night the fonts… bedtime book.
All 20 packs will be given away between today and the end of April.

HOW TO ENTER
You can enter on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, select your preferred platform (you only need to enter on one). You and a friend will both be entered into the competition.

Instagram:
Follow @fontosaur and tag a friend on any Fontosaur competition post.

Twitter:
Retweet a Fontosaur competition tweet and tag a friend, find a tweet at @TypeTasting.

Facebook:
Share a Fontosaur competition post and tag a friend, find a post at @TypeTasting.

The names of 20 winners will be pulled out of a jar at random by April 30th. The competition is open to UK addresses only.

Fontosaur
When Dinosaur Fonts Roamed the Earth
By Sarah Hyndman
Paperback: 64 pages, dimensions: 21.6 x 27.9 cm
Buy a copy UK
Buy a copy USA
Freshly printed for you by Amazon in most countries

Read more about the Fontosaur books here

You might also like these colouring books:

    

The Night the Fonts Farted by Sarah Hyndman
The Night the Fonts did something Naughty by Sarah Hyndman

 

 

Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth

Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth
A colouring book written and illustrated by Sarah Hyndman
Buy the book here www.typetasting.com/books

This is the first in a new series of books that combine dinosaurs with fonts. It began when Sarah’s 12-year-old nephew Eddie had the brilliant idea to make the faces of animals like cat, dog, cow, pig and T-Rex out of the letters of their name. Sarah and Eddie are now working on a collaborative sequel together.

Typographic animal sketches by Eddie Shelton (dog, cat, T-Rex and pig).

The idea to make a typographic book just about dinosaurs came about when a friend’s three-year-old son Blake unwrapped Sarah’s The Night the Fonts… books at Christmas and was disappointed because he really, really wanted a book about dinosaurs. Sarah says “I felt very sad that he was disappointed by the books even though they were full of farting and burping fonts and so I took up the challenge to make a book that he would love”.

The result is Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth, which is a book crammed full of dinosaurs reimagined as different fonts. Children will have fun learning to recognise letters in different shapes and sizes. They will learn how to spell out the names of their favourite dinosaurs while they colour them in. The book contains 50 fontosaurs to colour in along with activity sheets of fontosaurs to cut out, colour and stick onto a prehistoric landscape.

The first edition is in the form of a colouring book published and printed via Amazon’s print-on-demand platform. Sarah explains that she chose this format to launch Fontosaur “because it’s the quickest way I can get the books into the hands of children in lots of countries during this time of social-isolation”. A colourful reading book and stationery are planned for the future once funding (or a book deal) has been secured.

Better known for her work for adults, why did Sarah write a book about fonts for children?

“I think this is a wonderful age to write for because it’s when children are learning to read, so my children’s books are designed to start a conversation between the child and the grown-up reading with them. I find that children are excited about fonts and different lettering styles because their books are already so typographically expressive. From comic books to cartoons, this is a visual language they’re already very familiar with. My books put the spotlight on the typefaces, making both children and the grown-ups who read with them more aware of the fantastical world of fonts”.

Sarah Hyndman is on a mission to change the way we think and talk about typography by making it fun and exciting for everybody. She specialises in making typography entertaining and relevant with humour, a dash of theatre and lashings of audience participation. Sarah is the author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter (Penguin/Random House) and the founder of Type Tasting. As an experienced public speaker Sarah has given a TEDx talk and she speaks at events around the world. She’s an entertaining guest on radio and TV (including Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen, Today and Saturday Live for BBC Radio 4, Sunday Brunch for Channel 4).

Share the fontosaurs your children colour in or create with Sarah on Instagram @fontosaur.

Buy Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth here www.typetasting.com/books

Update: three-year-old Blake does now enjoy The Night the Fonts Farted book and thinks that his parents reading to him about farting fonts is very funny.

Look inside…

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Creative Lockdown Project: Type Safari in your home

Creative Lockdown Project: Type Safari in your home

The combinations of type found on street signs reveal a great deal about a city, town or specific area. They reflect the social, economic and historical development of the area and create their own, unique typographic DNA.

For a number of years, I took people on Type Safaris through Dalston in East London. These are guided walks exploring the signage with a photography challenge to create a phrase using letters from Dalston signs, as shown above. We often ended the tour by going for drinks in a quintessentially Dalston-style bar with a chequered lino floor (from its previous life as a furniture shop), a glitter ball and lampshades made from plastic vegetable colanders.

I’ll be inviting you to join me on a virtual Dalston Type Safari, dates to be announced soon. In our lockdown lives, we’re instead finding ourselves navigating our way around the rooms in our homes. This is the inspiration for this week’s Creative Lockdown Challenge.

Creative Lockdown Project: Type Safari in your home

This week’s challenge is to create a typographic composition to reflect your lockdown life at home.

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Type Tasting needs your help

This is my wonderful studio in an old Victorian chocolate factory in East London. This is where I create Type Tasting workshops, talks, meetups and events. I do a lot of work with students and spend a large proportion of my time on self-initiated and self-funded research. However, all paid work for the next few months has been cancelled due to Coronavirus. In order to pay the rent, I’ll be inviting you to join me here for virtual events in return for a small donation that will go towards paying the studio rent, all from the comfort of your home.

Supporting me through this difficult time will be entertaining and educational. You’ll also be playing a vital role in ensuring that the studio rent is paid so that I can run workshops, research and events again once we’re out the other side. Click here to make a donation.

See you soon,
Sarah.

 

Creative Lockdown Project: Edible alphabet

Creative Lockdown Project: Edible alphabet

This is the third creative lockdown challenge. These challenges are designed to be a bit of fun and to document our time collectively spent in lockdown. Please share this creative challenge with your friends and post your final results on social media.

Challenge
Use the food you have in your home to create an edible alphabet. Think about a word you would like to spell out and work out how to make the letters. Will you arrange the food you’re about to eat or would you like to bake something from scratch?

Don’t go out shopping to buy any extra ingredients, the challenge is to use what you can find in your kitchen. It would be great to see photos of the process as you bake or create your letters.

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Creative Lockdown Project: Human body alphabet

Creative Lockdown Project: Human body alphabet

This is the second creative lockdown challenge designed to be a bit of fun and to document our time collectively spent in lockdown. Please share it with friends and post your final results on social media with #CreativeLockdownProject. If you also tag #TypeTasting I’ll be sharing some of the results.

Challenge

For you and a friend to create an alphabet using the human body and a video chat app. You need at least one other self-isolating person to take part, but feel free to turn it into an alphabet challenge party with a large group of friends!

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Creative Lockdown Project: Object alphabet

Creative Lockdown alphabet ideas

Creative Lockdown Project: Object alphabet

These are strange and unsettling times as around a quarter of the world’s population is now living under lockdown. We’re all readjusting to the new situation and contemplating the future, but the most important thing we can do is listen to the scientists and to stay at home.

Every week I’m going to post a creative project you can do at home that will be a bit of fun and will also document our time collectively spent in lockdown. This is the first creative challenge, please share it with friends and post your final results on social media with #CreativeLockdownProject. If you also tag #TypeTasting I’ll be sharing some of the results.

Challenge

Look around your home and find an object that you would like to turn into an alphabet. It’s fun if this is clearly a household object so that it represents your time spent in lockdown. For example you could use your glasses, a pair of scissors, a coathanger, kitchen utensils or a child’s toy.

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